Torah Study, Take Two

Torah study (not recently)

I tried Torah study several months ago at a Reform congregation in a neighboring community. That time, in the room crowded with people, all munching on bagels and chatting, I didn't feel that the content was covered in a way that enlightened me to the meaning in the text. It was mostly people expressing their opinions on the biblical content--not the knowledge or wisdom of the rabbi--or other scholars--leading us.

But last night was different. With Rabbi R R, my Chabad guide, along with me and two other men, sat in the quiet shul at a plastic card table and carefully went through a few sections of this week's Torah portion.

I learned a lot. We listened as the rabbi explained possible interpretations of the text--how different scholars would approach it. We learned there was a reference in a later part of the Torah that shed light on the portion and went there to read it.

We read some Hebrew--the language of the Torah. We had English to look at, too. We asked questions. We discussed what happened.

Did you know that the biblical Jews sent spies into Israel before attempting to enter the promised land? And that when the spies gave a report of a "land of milk and honey" -- but fierce people living there -- the leaders decided to stay in the desert? For that, they paid a price. They would stay in the desert for 40 years, and none of them would enter the land when the Jews finally went in!

How to interpret this? Here's one way to look at it. It was not necessarily that the leaders were afraid of the occupants of the land. That wasn't the issue. It was that in the desert all their needs were met, and they could study and be close to G-d all the time. However, they realized that entering the promised land promised to be a huge and difficult job. That's their big mistake.

How about that?

As these portions go, there are multiple topics. This one also mentioned the use of tzitzit (special fringes on the corners of four-cornered garments), which serve to remind Jews to observe the mitzvot. I enjoyed the fact that one of the three paragraphs I read every day when I put on the tefillin is right there--in the Torah!

I begin to see how a lifetime of this kind of study can slowly illuminate the story of the Jewish people. I'm looking forward to returning again for more.

Joining in at a Chabad Saturday Service

I was invited to attend a Saturday morning service by Rabbi RR, and I accepted. It was to be followed by lunch, so I figured I'd get a good chance to meet some of the people who attended the shul and see how they felt about things. Rabbi RR suggested I drop in once the service had already started, so I got there at about 10:30 a.m.

The Rabbi placed a tallit over my shoulders, directed me to come up to the front of the room, and I grabbed a siddur (prayerbook) and joined in.

While Reform and Conservative synagogues are set up on the "church" model, where the professional religious staff performs a ritual that parishioners may or not be involved in, the Orthodox model is more participatory. Although the rabbi is the nominal leader, anyone can direct the service who knows how it goes. There is an order, and there are some long prayers in Hebrew to say, but they're all there in the book. Occasionally, I watched the rabbi say a passage very quickly--like an auctioneer--and then slow down. Some of the people spoke the prayers at their own pace, and you could hear them in the background.

The centerpiece of a Saturday service is reading from the Torah--the sacred scrolls containing what a Christian would recognize as the first five books of the Old Testament or the Pentateuch. The common English translation is NOT the King James version, but it reads in a "thee and thou" way. There are other translations into more standard modern English too, but it's most satisfying to hear it in Hebrew, and then have the Rabbi explain what's going on.

It's an honor to help with the reading--to be called "up" for an aliyah. There is a short prayer that you chant before the section of the Torah portion that is read while you're up there, and a short concluding prayer. I was surprised--and pleased--to be called up for the fourth of the seven aliyahs. Using my Hebrew name--Shlomo ben Mendel--the rabbi beckoned me up to the folding table that he used to hold the precious Torah, which had been ceremonially removed from the "ark" where it normally lives. It had the wooden spindles on each end and the beautiful hand-written text on its parchment.

I said the first prayer--which I not only remembered, but got to hear three others recite before me, and it was written on a large card on the table in case you needed help to remember it. I was surprised that it was the very same one we used in the Reformed temple when I was a kid!

I stood next to the rabbi as he read, with my hand on the Torah's wooden handle. After reciting the concluding prayer a few minutes later, I moved to the side as a young man, came up and did his part. After you finish and step back to your seat, others shake your hand, congratulating you for participating. It felt great.

The service proceeded after the Torah reading for a while, including a Haftorah reading from the Prophets. At the end of the service, the rabbi wished us "Good Shabbat" and we stepped away to have lunch.

There was a nice spread in the kitchen, and I helped myself before sitting down at the long table with the others. We had a very pleasant and interesting conversation about Jewish subjects, including a little wine and some hard liquor (in small quantities). Shabbat is a happy time, even though we also discussed a few people who were ill and one man's sister, who had just died unexpectedly a few days before--in her 40's. The man had said the mourner's kaddish prayer during the service, so assumed that had suffered a loss recently.

The Orthodox service, as done by the Chabad folks, is inclusive, and I was pleased that I knew enough to participate. I felt at home there, which surprised me a little. I will be meeting with the rabbi this week to talk about the upcoming holiday of Purim, and I'm sure I'll be back for Saturday soon.

Tu B'Shevat with Shir Ami

Today, I took part in a Jewish holiday that I had never heard of or celebrated before. Tu B'Shevat, which occurs on the 15th of the Jewish Month of Shevat (Feb. 8 this year), is a marking of the new year for trees. Originally related to the tithing of produce grown in the Holy Land, it today is a time to celebrate by eating fruit specified in the Torah and think about the health of the planet we occupy.

I joined a friendly group of about 30 people at Congregation Shir Ami to commemorate the holiday. We gathered in the cozy room that serves as the central gathering place for the congregation and, similar to what we do on Passover, we read through a haggadah that walked us through four worlds as described in the Kabbalah: our actions, our emotions, our thoughts and spirits.

On each six-person table, besides red and white wine and flowers, was a large tray containing fruit from each world that would be available in Israel. As we progressed through the service, we ate a sample from each world, for example, almonds from world one, apricots for world two, and drank a cup of wine with it.

Interestingly, we mixed the red and white wine as we went, starting with all white, then white with a touch or red, red with a touch of white and finally, all red. Each time we ate, we said a blessing on the food (fruit of the tree) and each time we drank our wine mixtures, we sang the wine blessing.

As a relevant way of thinking about the earth on a day of trees, the haggadah contained information on ways to take care of the planet, from proper vehicle maintenance and using public transit to lower air pollution to not wasting water and recycling plastic containers. It concluded with The Ten Plagues of today:

• Acid Rain
• Melting of the polar ice caps
• Diseased trees, destruction of the rain forests, forest fires
• Pollution of oceans, lakes and rivers
• Air pollution
• Water shortages and droughts
• Creating garbage landfills
• Over consumption of energy
• Extinction of species
• Destruction of the ozone layer

No wonder Tu B'Shevat is called by some the "Jewish Earth Day."

An interesting note about trees: It was a custom in ancient Israel to plant a tree at the birth of a child. When the child grew up and married, branches were cut from the tree to hold up the chuppah (marriage canopy).

Three quarters through this very pleasant ceremony, we broke to enjoy a delicious lunch. The salads, soups and quiche, topped off by brownies, cake and coffee, were all excellent. Then, we went outside where the children were expertly guided in planting four slim new trees along the east side of the temple grounds.

Then we went inside to have our last cup of wine and conclude the service.

There is so much we can do about our planet, and a day like this reminds us about it. It also feels good to enjoy fellowship in the warm and friendly atmosphere of this community synagogue. I think I'll be back soon.

Welcome to Torah Study

Yesterday, I went to my first Torah study group. I came away with mixed feelings.

It started out with a nice personal tour of the facilities, including the beautiful 100-year-old sanctuary and the brand new, starkly and unapologetically modern chapel, connected by the social hall named after a long-serving former rabbi. 

I joined the group in a classroom at the end of a hall. I arrived in time to find a good seat along the long table. The meeting ended up standing-room-only--probably 35 people. We had bagels with schmear and coffee, courtesy of one of the class members; a list circulated for others to volunteer this service for upcoming weeks. 

The class, I found out later, has been meeting for many years, and there were some obvious "regulars."

So, what was it like? The text for the day was the very beginning of the book of Job, from the Writings. I'd been looking forward to a stimulating, fast-moving study, but I felt there was too much nattering about trivial details before starting the actual examination of Job. I was annoyed by the know-it-all tone of a few of the class members. It reminded me of my mid-college years of sitting in a philosophy class waiting for things to move on. I didn’t have much to add on this first visit, but it seemed that we could have progressed more quickly and focused more on the meaning of the text. After about an hour and a quarter the group broke up--until next time.

There were a lot of elderly people there, and I made me uncomfortable. It felt like a diversion at the Jewish retirement home. As a member of a rock group and what I consider to be a "youthful" 58, it just felt too slow-moving. One ancient woman at the other end of the table stood up (very slowly) to announce her upcoming hip replacement surgery. Sigh. A distinguished-looking older African American man near me, wearing a middle-eastern style kippah, started going on and on about something he deemed relevant from another place in the Torah and the rabbi had to gently refocus the group.

It's quite possible that those who are interested in Torah study tend to be older folks who aren't sitting glued to their Facebook or other electronic social activities. It was only my first time there, and I brought in my own prejudices and habits. I felt that the "students" were blabbing on about their interpretations, but that may very well be what the class is about--to get different views and opinions on the material to somehow illuminate the text for everyone. Perhaps that's the ideal, but when I was a student, I wanted to hear what the teacher had to say, and I found this kind of woolgathering an inpediment. But it may be that I tend toward passivity and acceptance of the words of "experts," when one of the goals of Torah study is to actively question the material. But is fussing over the details beneficial or just intellectual fooling around?

Perhaps a smaller, younger group might work better for me. I'm not sure if I should perhaps visit this group again and try to come back with a different attitude. At the speed it was moving, though, it could take a decade to get through the Torah one time. But maybe there's no hurry.